Second Circuit Defers to the BIA's Expanded Definition of a Crime of Child Abuse

The Second Circuit joined the Third Circuit in deferring to the Board of Immigration Appeals' expanded definition of a crime of child abuse, outlined in Matter of Soram. In doing so, it widens the circuit split on this issue; the Tenth Circuit in Ibarra v. Holder found the expanded definition in Soram to be unreasonable. Practitioners in other circuits should keep an eye for continuing development of this precedent, as the definition in Soram reaches most child neglect statutes, as well as child abuse statutes, and does confine the definition of a crime of child abuse to statutes which require actual physical or mental injury to a child.

The full text of Florez v. Holder can be found here: http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/791c849d-8b12-4eaf-884f-f37fcb4cf885/3/doc/14-874_opn.pdf#xml=http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/791c849d-8b12-4eaf-884f-f37fcb4cf885/3/hilite/